Molo Soup

The fall weather is upon us and when the chill in the air is beginning to show its face, there is nothing more comforting than a bowl of soup.

Molo soup is a Filipinized version of wonton soup and it's basically made from very similar ingredients. I personally think that Molo soup tastes better...but that's just me :-)

1 lb. lean ground pork
1 lb. peeled shrimp, finely chopped
1 onion, minced finely
1 carrot, minced finely
3 tbsp. oyster sauce
salt and pepper
70-80 wonton wrappers
1/2 chicken or 2 bone in chicken breasts, boiled and shredded (use this to make your chicken broth)
2 heads garlic, minced
4 spring onions, chopped
8 cups chicken broth

Step 1: Make the filling
1. Combine pork, shrimp, carrot onion, and oyster sauce.
2. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Mix well until thoroughly combined.
Note: The food processor makes very quick work of this.
4. Set aside 4-5 tablespoons of the mixture and use the rest to make the wontons.
5. Place half a teaspoon to a teaspoon of filling in each wonton wrapper. Seal edges with a bit of water. Set aside.
Note: To see if seasoning is ok, I usually nuke a small bit in the microwave for 10-15 seconds so I can actually taste it before I go ahead and make the wontons.

Step 2: Fry garlic in oil until slightly golden.
This is a very important step. The savory, crunchy bits of garlic floating on the soup makes this dish. No garlic, no molo soup.
Note: Do this in the soup pot where you will actually make your soup so you can use the garlic infused oil to saute the soup base.

Step 3: Make the soup
1. Saute half of the chopped spring onions in the garlic infused oil for a few seconds.
2. Add the meat/shrimp mixture and break it up as you saute.
3. Add the shredded chicken.
4. Pour in the chicken broth.
5. When the soup is boiling, drop the wontons ever so gently in the broth, stirring gently after every few pieces so they don't stick to each other.
6. Season to taste with salt and lots of freshly ground black pepper.
7. Simmer for 15 minutes or so.

Step 4: Assemble the dish
Ladle soup into bowls and top with fresh spring onions and fried garlic. Enjoy with eyes closed. Feel the warmth of the broth take away the chill of the nippy fall air.

Note: This recipe serves 8-10 people. If that's too much, keep some of the wontons and fry them up another time. It's excellent dipped in sweet chili sauce.

Butternut Squash Soup

What could be better than a steaming, hot bowl of sweet, rich butternut squash soup topped with salty, crispy bacon bits?

Butternut squash soup
1 whole butternut squash, peeled and chopped into 2 inch pieces
1 carrot, peeled and chopped into 1 inch pieces
1 medium onion, chopped
6 strips of bacon, sliced into 1/4 inch pieces
6 cups chicken broth
1/4 tsp. curry powder
pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup milk or cream
salt and pepper to taste

1. In a pot, fry bacon until it renders its fat. Reserve bacon bits and remove all but 1 tbsp. of the bacon fat.
2. Saute onion and carrots.
3. Deglaze pan with chicken broth.
4. Add the squash, nutmeg, curry powder and bay leaf.
5. Simmer for 20-30 minutes until squash and carrots are tender.
6. Puree with a hand blender (or use a real blender or food processor).
7. Add milk and season with salt and pepper to taste.
8. Serve topped with bacon bits.

I love making this for dinner and bringing the left-overs for lunch the next day. It's also a great way of getting the boys to eat more veggies. It's true the bacon makes it slightly evil, but it's definitely worth it! :-)

Bacon and Corn Chowder

One of the bounties of summer is having fresh sweet corn for the ridiculously low price of $1.99/dozen. So we had 6 as corn-on-the-cob with pats of melted butter, and the rest I made into this corn soup.

Bacon and Corn Chowder

corn kernels, removed from 6 ears

200 g bacon, chopped into small pieces

1 medium onion, chopped

a pinch of smoked paprika

6 cups chicken broth

2 potatoes, peeled and cubed

salt and pepper

1/2 cup milk or cream

chives for garnish

1. In a heavy pot, render the bacon fat until bacon is crisp.

2. Remove bacon and most of fat, leaving about 2 tsp.

3. In the same pot, saute onions until soft.

4. Add corn and potatoes and paprika.

5. Pour in chicken broth.

6. Simmer until potatoes are soft.

7. Season with salt and pepper.

8. Turn off heat and add milk or cream.

9. Use immersion blender to partly puree the soup. I like to leave in some larger pieces of corn and potatoes.

10. Serve garnished with bacon pieces and chives.

Sinigang: the ultimate comfort food

Nothing brings back happy and warm memories of the Philippines like a hot, soothing bowl of mouth-puckering, saliva flow-inducing sinigang. Even here in The Great White North, sinigang remains one of our staple meals, making an appearance on our dinner table at least once a month.

It's so quick and easy, I even consider it "emergency food." The pressure cooker makes quick work of frozen pork bones and in half an hour, a perfect meal is ready. I also consider it "budget food." $2.70 for 3 pounds of neck bones, $1.29 for the kang kong, another few cents for the gabi, a couple of tomatoes, an onion, sinigang mix --- a nutritious, delicious dish that feeds all of us for less than $7.

I do use ready mix pang-sigang (gasp!!!) but I tweak it a little by adding tomatoes, onions, whole peppercorns and patis :-)

SHORT CUT SINIGANG

3 pounds pork neck bones
2 plum tomatoes, quartered
1 medium onion, quartered
1/4 cup fish sauce
3-4 pcs. gabi (or edo as it is known here), peeled
1 tsp. black peppercorns or siling pangsigang (if you have some on hand, which I usually don't)
1 bunch kang kong (look for tung choi in the chinese market) or spinach
1 to 1 1/2 packets of Knorr Sinigang Mix with Gabi (my preferred brand)

1. In a pressure cooker, cover pork bones with enough water.
2. Add in tomatoes, onion, fish sauce and pepper.
3. Seal pressure cooker and cook until pressure cooker whistles.
4. Lower heat to maintain whistling. Cook for 12-15 minutes.
5. Release pressure.
6. Skim off fat then add gabi/edo. Simmer for about 5-7 minutes, until gabi is almost done.
7. Add sinigang mix. Adjust seasoning according to taste.
8. Finally, add the green veggies.

9. Simmer a few minutes more until veggies are done.

Other vegetable options include sitaw/long beans, eggplants, radish, or any other green leafy veg. The possibilities are endless...